


Home Court

by ParadoxR



Series: Hit the Sky [3]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Character Development, Co-workers, Episode: s01e01/2 Children of the Gods, F/M, Military, Pre-Relationship, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-30
Updated: 2014-08-31
Packaged: 2018-02-15 10:58:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2226549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParadoxR/pseuds/ParadoxR
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Sir, I don’t know what’s in those labs, but I’d rather not find out by blowing them all up.” He nods, satisfied with her handle on the situation.</p><p>aka, the fic where Sam meets Walter and Siler. Standalone if you're looking for military stuff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lights

**Author's Note:**

  * For [steadfast](https://archiveofourown.org/users/steadfast/gifts), [mebfeath](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mebfeath/gifts).



> This is the return from Chulak, canon-divergent. The mission is the "52nd Hour" saga, but you can start reading right here. I mean, Hammond and Janet don’t know where they’ve been for three days, so why should you have to?
> 
> This series has one root canon change. Aliens don’t speak English. This complicates the Chulak mission, and Teal’c, and Jack-Skaara. Chulak goes so poorly (the "52nd Hour" saga), that the president doesn’t approve SG teams until the weekend after CotG. This is the interim.
> 
> Allusion to the important part of "1969". Some cursing.

Sam hadn’t realized you could wake up in a wormhole.

Logically, she knows that’s not the case; she's actually in split-seconds of reintegration. Still, an EEG would be great. There’s no pain, no sensation yet. It might have use in algiatry.

 

“CARTER!” _Carter._ The ramp collides under his back. Bare skin, too cold. Pitch black.

_Carter. Teal’c._

Jack sits bolt upright, right into the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

General George Hammond has done a lot in his career. And he’s seen four of the people in his Gate Room far more than he can yet admit, at least until they’re actually on SG-1. But time traveling Air Force officers notwithstanding, this is new. He’s not a fan. His loudspeaker button clicks again, emptily.

“Working on it, Sir. We went into Lockdown Oscar. No power. Even the doors won’t open.”

Hammond can barely see or hear anything below, but what he saw by the glow of the wormhole says they need those doors open.

“Cut through.”

Blood, grim, shredded clothes, no gear, all six _(six?)_ flying through the Gate haphazardly. It’s an impressive amount of trouble for being fifty-nine hours overdue from their second alien planet.

“Yes, Sir.”

 

“He goes to the front.” She doesn’t stop moving. The stretcher heads directly for the closed door. It’s the patient she doesn’t know, not that it matters. Someone slicing off and cauterizing a good chunk of his thigh gets him to the front of the line. “How is she?”

“We need another stretcher.”

Stupid on her part, to assume they wouldn’t bring back an alien on their first mission and the doors wouldn’t lock and lose power when they dialed in. _Welcome to Stargate Command, folks._

“Alright. And ration your IVs. We’re not sure how long we’ll be in here.” _Open the damn doors._

“Yes, Ma’am. They’re cutting through.”

 _Thank God._ “Run another ECG on him.” Major Ferretti grimaces electrodes. She still doesn't stop moving.

Doctor Janet Fraiser hasn’t been afraid of the dark since she was two. In fact she rather likes it, expect when she’s triaging six patients that literally jumped through the ‘Stargate’ after a seventy hour mission. Especially when she’s got an entirely new staff that’s never done any of this before. _No one’s ever done this before._ Still, she’s certainly having a better first week than these folks.

“Fraiser!”

Janet jerks her head towards the frightened doctor.

“This one’s got a snake in his stomach.”

_Doctor Jackson told us not to shoot a Jaffa?_

The light is moving. Jack jerks his head away in time to realize there’s a stretcher rolling directly at him. Damn flashlights. “Report!” He belts scratchily. _You were the last one out. They’re all here. They’re all here._

“Mobile.” Lou croaks. He’s by the door. But his shadow’s not even sitting up on the gurney.

“Operational.” Charlie’s at least on his elbows.

“Yeah, here.” Daniel coughs. He’s sitting despite the nurses.

“Teal’c.” Because ‘report’ translates even when you don’t speak English.

 _No._ “Carter?!” Jack manages to stand up. He trips over the remnants of his shirt. “Carter!” _If you killed her…_

Captain Warren sticks his hand between Jack and the gurney and points his flashlight to the right. Off the ramp. For a horrifying second Jack thinks he’d thrown her over the back of the Gate. “Carter!”

There’s a bustle of activity there, but no stretcher. _Why didn’t you warn them about Teal’c when you had the chance?_ Jack shoves his own gurney towards his captain’s limp form.

 

Janet takes the arrived stretcher without comment, though the shirtless and bloody colonel _standing_ next to it is about to get a piece of her mind.

“Carter.” _  
_

Everything’s buzzing. Blacked out. _They’re coming back._ Someone’s grabbed her. _They’re here._ _Move! _

 

They can’t release her safely.

 

Sam lashes out, blinded. _You need to steal back the M9._ “Ah!!” She kicks hard. The crunch to its face is momentarily satisfying. _Be quiet!_

“Carter. Captain!”

Her vision’s spinning, but her feet are under her. That’s all that counts for now. She can’t dodge the searchlight. _Move!_

Jack manages to get in front of it just as Warren realizes the flashlight isn’t helping. “CARTER!”

 _Who?_ She pivots, but her ankles aren’t behaving any better than her knees. “Colonel!” Her voice is still at their ‘stranded on an unknown planet’ level. _Help!_ Sam lashes out for him but realizes there’s no fabric to grab.

Jack lets her hands find his arms. “Carter.” _Relax._

“Sir?” _You’re not supposed to call him that._

“Yeah. It’s alright.”

“We’ve got to…” Suddenly the other half of Sam’s mind starts careening towards her. The collision shudders through her arms. _You’re here._ It’s over.

“We made it.”

It’s so simple, and yet. “We made it.”


	2. Sly

Damn _right we did._ “Captain, I could kiss ya.” Charlie hollers unapologetically. She’s standing up. They _all_ made it.

Sam jerks towards the yell and ends up flailing for the stretcher. Her eyes glance off her CO’s. They’re almost glowing in the dark, but he looks _so tired_. She pulls herself onto the stretcher and sits without laying down. Sam takes it as a sign of how bad he feels that he sits down as well.

“It’s nothing personal, of course. I’d kiss Hammond if he’d just pulled that off.”

“No, you would not, Major.” The voice crackling through Sergeant Cho’s and Captain Warren’s radios has a hint of humor to it.

Charlie barely misses a beat before snagging the sergeant’s radio. “No. No, Sir, I would not.”

Lou’s laugh at him is notably labored, and Charlie knows a morphine high when he hears it. Still, it’s nice.

 

Janet almost laughs at that, too. Their first mission on the job and she’s got six conscious, joking patients. Well, some joking and five currently awake. And they’re locked at the bottom of a missile silo with a dangerous alien superconductor. “Alright, ETA to doors open?” She’s taken Sergeant Ali’s radio as her own.

“Fifty minutes, Ma’am.”

“ _Fifty minutes?_ ”

“Those doors are three-inch filled HLSA steel lattices rated _above_ UL level 8.”

Janet turns to her patient. Apparently the captain’s feeling better. The nurse nods and disconnects the ECG, though they’re far from done with her injuries.

“So… _not_ C4?”

Sam looks over her knees at her CO. He’d stuck to the far end of the stretcher, so she’s almost comfortable laying down. “Not in here. The current setup is fully sealed.”

Jack nods. So, not if anyone around here values their eardrums. Or lungs. Or stomachs. “Can you fix it?”

 _Me?_ “Uh, no.”

“ ‘ _No?_ ’ ”

“Sir, I’m the lab director. I didn’t wire the entire base myself.”

“What went wrong, Captain?”

“General, Sir, this system wasn’t intended for the Stargate to turn _on_ again. It doesn’t even have the _pre_ -designed precautions for dialing in.”

Jack grimaces at her knees. He’s spent enough time in the B-Ring of the Pentagon to translate that exactly. Budget cuts.

“Captain, what _happened_?”

 _Damnit, Sam, concentrate._ “I don’t know, General.”

“We’re in Lockdown Oscar, Ma’am.” Lieutenant Kersh keys his own radio and readjusts their signal amplifier.

 _Lockdown Oscar? _“ _Why_ would you do that, Lieutenant?” _Not here._ “Don’t answer that. Who’s on Level 23?”

“We’re Airmen Nahari and Vizer, Ma’am. It’s bad. The fire started in Panel 7. We can’t even figure out where to start up here.”

Jack grimaces. They sound terrified.

 _What’s Panel 7?_ Sam cracks her neck and shakes her head to the morphine headed for her IV. “Who’s on 9?”

“No one yet.”

“I’d address it from there, General. The backup is a lot easier to overwhelm. Getting 9 back online should be easier.” Not that she has any idea how.

“Ma’am, no one here knows 9.”

 _…You knew that. It’s been over a year in storage._ “Who’s on 19?” She had prepared for this, sort of.

“Also no one, Ma’am.”

 _Great_ _personnel distribution, Lieutenant._ “The reports are in my lab. B-3. That door should blow open with a brick on the hinge-side weld.”

Jack smirks. She memorized all her door breaches.

“Err, Ma’am, the power’s out.”

 _No freaking duh, Lieutenant_. “The reports are _printed_ in my lab, Kersh. File cabinet C.” _Level 9 power distribution specs._ “Drawer 4.” Bright kids, the ones they get down here to babysit an impossibly dangerous abandoned ring.

“Do it.” Hammond shakes his head into the radio. They have a serious personnel issue.

 

“Ma’am, these don’t make any sense.”

Crap. “You’ll need an electrical engineer.” _You knew that. Are you paying any attention to who you send places?_

Siler’s been straining to hear, but now he pauses the torch briefly. There’s no answer. “Take this.” He gestures to the airman that’s been paying the most attention to his cutting. It only takes a minute to prep her. At least they’ve got one keeper.

“I need to get to 19.” A fellow tech sergeant doesn’t blink at this, just hands Siler a radio and a flashlight.

 

Siler readjusts his gear and pants up at the ten more levels he’ll scale momentarily. “How do you get from Stairway A to Lab B-3?”

 _Who’s that?_ Sam struggles through the photographs in her memory. _It’s your own lab._ Yeah, that she’s been to exactly twice so far.

Jack reaches over her knees for the radio. He learned long ago what to memorize about new bases.

 

“Ma’am, I can do Level 9. Twenty minutes; I’ll be done before they finish cutting.” Pause. “This is Technical Sergeant Siler.”

 _‘Siler’?_ “You’re sure, Sergeant?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

 _Risk assessment._ “Can you put just Levels 21 and 28 online?”

Sly pauses and leafs through the spec sheets. “I could, Ma’am. No time delay.”

He _sounds_ confident.

“Captain?”

Sam covers the radio unnecessarily and addresses her CO. “Sir, I don’t know what’s in all those labs, but I’d rather not find out by blowing it all up.” He nods, satisfied with her handle on the situation. Sam keys the radio again. “Do it that way. And stop cutting.”

Jack just raises his eyebrows. The cutting sound stops.

Janet glances deliberately at the captain’s IV. “Captain, we _need_ to get you folks out of here. Now.”

Sam’s glare is too strong at the CMO. “Doctor, that door is UL eight-plus. If we have to replace it in its entirety, we’ll be cutting consumables for a year just to keep the lights on around here.” Of course, that’s assuming the lights are indeed staying on around here.

Her first week on her first job and already Janet’s arguing with a line officer about resupply budgets. _What the heck did you get yourself into?_

Hammond doesn’t interfere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cheat a little on Siler’s rank. He appears as a Senior Master Sergeant (First Sergeant) in “Solitudes”. You can’t see his rank in “Message in a Bottle”, but he’s then _demoted_ to Master Sergeant (not First Sergeant) in “Fifth Race”. I ignore the earlier canon error; he’ll be a MSgt by “Fifth Race”.


	3. Walt

Two hours later and Jack’s still not sure his eyes are readjusted to the light. Probably because he’s had them closed for so much of it. “Doc!”

“Colonel, you are not getting off that bed until your blood results come back, now _lie down_.”

_Somebody’s got a complex._ “Where’s my team?”

“Majors Ferretti and Kawalsky are complaining exactly as loudly as you are. Captain Carter is meeting with her team. She is also _lying down_.”

Jack finds that difficult to believe. Just the very last part. The first part makes him rather proud. “Teal’c’s ok?”

“Doctor Jackson says Mister Teal’c is recovering normally for him.” _You have an alien in your infirmary_. That’ll take a while to wear off. “He also reports that the shock you all received acted similarly to a non-lethal Goa’uld weapon.”

Jack lies down.

 

“How did Lockdown Oscar happen, Gentlemen?” Sam forces her spine to stay as straight as her voice for the three men. Her feet don’t touch the ground off the bed.

“I did it, Ma’am. The backup monitors were blinking out.”

_‘Blinking’ out, Sergeant_? It’s the years maneuvering around the Pentagon that keep her voice leavened. “And what’s the proper lockdown for that?”

“I don’t know, Ma’am. Oscar is the only extra-Gate protocol I’ve learned. I’m sorry it overreacted.”

She squints at the master sergeant. It’d be nice if she’d met her flight before shooting across the galaxy. “You’re not a Control Room supervisor.”

“No, Ma’am. Just a dialing tech.”

_As a master sergeant?_ Personnel crisis is right. “Well, then, Sergeant Harriman. Great job.”

Sam takes a little joy in the way his eyebrows climb. “Thank you, Ma’am. No problem.”

_That ‘Ma’am’ thing is kind of annoying, isn’t it?_ She’s too used to supervising civilians. “Thank _you_ , Sergeant. You just saved the base.” They nod his exit. Sam turns to the next man. _Don’t yawn, don’t yawn, don’t yawn._ “ ‘Siler’, right? Heck of a job, Sergeant.”

“Thank you, Ma’am.”

_What time is it?_ “You’re on night shift?”

“Swing, Ma’am, but I can stay.”

She nods with undisguised relief. “Drawer 6 has the specs for some of the more sensitive level 19 equipment. I’d appreciate it if you could go through them.”

He smiles. “Yes, Ma’am.”

Last guy. “Lieutenant.” Sam’s tempted to stand up; the young man is towering over her. She puts on her ‘I’m twenty years younger than you, a woman, and your _boss_ , Doctor’ mien instead.

It works. “Ma’am, I’m aware that I incorrectly handled the CR-GR lockdown.”

_The whole damn base is aware of that, Kersh._ Sam resists the urge to scrub a hand through her hair. She _really_ needs a shower.

He keeps rolling. “Correct procedure is Lockdown Lima. It would’ve kept the backup system online.”

“Yes.” _Don’t sigh._ “Anything else urgent?” _You’re trusting his judgment on that?_

“No, Ma’am.”

So she procrastinates him, too. _Don’t yawn._ “I want an After Action Report when I see you in my office at 1100 tomorrow.” She’s usually an early bird about counseling sessions, but this is an exception. She could see showering until 1059 tomorrow.


	4. Team Meetings

“Alright, you’re all cleared to hit the showers.”  _Please._ “But you  _cannot_ leave base. And no strenuous activity whatsoever.”

“Yesss!” Lou pops up from his seat on the bed. Janet resists the urge to kick him in the shin. “General Hammond, Sir!” The General standing next to their CMO is just shy of overjoyed. “May I make a request?”

“Of course, Major.”

“I need a phone. Long, international call.” Lou itches at the bandage just about his knee brace.

Hammond chuckles. “Please use my office, Major. Take as long as you’d like.” Lou’s already gone by the time, “Anybody else?”

A few head shakes before Charlie, “I guess I should call my sister again.”

Jack nods him off. Daniel heads directly for Teal’c’s room. “Captain? You should call someone.” _You should call someone. _ He should find someone to take his call.

“No, Sir.”

_‘No, Sir?’_ “Alright. Get some rest. Team dinner in two hours, if you’re up for it.”

 

Jack waits until he’s under the cold water jet to try thinking about that.

_She’s single._

_Shut. Up._

 

Sam runs a hand through her wet hair and almost trips in the doorway of flight NCO office. “Sergeant Harriman.” It’s been almost exactly an hour, but she misses the long-enough shower.

“Good evening, Ma’am.”

She manages to stay upright by pressing against wall. “I just wanted to thank you again.” She studies him carefully, and sees it.

“Thank you, Ma’am.”

“It’s not your fault, you know.”

Davis hides his wince and fixes more closely on the young captain. She’s burnt and blistered bright red. It’d be funny if the grapevine hadn’t already erupted with all the other injuries she has. But she looks sincerely concerned. Still, he’d made a heck of a mess.

“It really isn’t.” Sam continues. “I’ve been reviewing our training protocols. I apologize that they’re seriously underdeveloped.” Which is her fault, of course. She hadn’t monitored the dormant ops side closely enough after Abydos. _Maybe if you’d been allowed to stay here personally._ At least she’d’ve have seen the morale problem it’s caused.

Davis decides he’s not going to touch that one.

Sam has other ideas. “I was hoping you could help me there.”

“Ma’am?”

“Identifying training deficits. And I’d like you trained as a Control Room supervisor.”

His eyebrows jump. He knows he’s working below his pay grade, of course, but he doubts she can really do much about that. “Ma’am, I’m sorry, I thought we were closing down. I PCS next week.”

_Damnit._ She exhales openly. “We may be, Sergeant. But if we don’t…”

“I’d make the request, Ma’am.” He supplies.

Sam smiles and starts to turn. _You need to do more._ She scrolls through the choices. “Sergeant.” She quirks a smile. “How’s this school district?”

Davis returns it. “Quite good, Ma’am.”

Pay dirt. “That’s good. What’re their names?”

“Brendan, Jessie, Tyler, Eli, Cindy, Kaitlin.”

_Whoa._

“You don’t have to remember that.”

Sam chuckles. “I’ll do my best, Sergeant” _Name?_ “Harriman.”

“Most people call me Walter, Ma’am.”

Sam gets a little too surprised. She hasn’t supervised many enlisted servicemembers, but still.

“Nickname, not first name. My airmen started it, Ma’am. Six kids, I guess I know my Disney movies.”

Sam chuckles. “Alright then, Walter Disney.” She smiles her exit and heads further down her to-do list, racing towards ‘sleep’. _Brendan, Jesse, Tyler, Eli, Cindy, Kaitlin._

 

“Daniel?” Sam peeks her head around the open curtain. “How is he?”

“Teal’c’s alright, I think.”

The doctor barely turns towards her. “And how are you?” _His wife’s missing._

Daniel just grimaces at the younger woman.

She leans on a chair. “We’re getting all the labs back on. Anything I should know about in yours?”

“No.” It’s not like he has anything to his name on this planet. “As long as you’re not going to catch my Abydonian crestilanians on fire.”

The foreign word effectively cuts off her attempt at quasi-small talk. “Daniel, I’m sorry.”

_Yikes._ Suddenly the captain sounds _this_ close to falling apart. Daniel studies her again. Arms crossed, no eye contact, twitching jaw. And she’s running of less than half the sleep he is. “It’s ok.”

Sam shakes her head. “I shouldn’t have ignored your questions about the abandoned town. He could’ve died. We all could’ve.”

“You got us out.” _You’re the one that didn’t bother to ask Teal’c about the oppidum._ He’d barely noticed it was a mining town.

Jack does a double take on his final escape from the infirmary showers. He wants to bolt, but the sergeant outside Teal’c’s curtain looks decidedly uncomfortable. It stops Charlie short. Jack continues past ‘Siler’. “Great job.”

Sam tilts towards the curtain. _Darnit._ “Good evening, Sir.”

“How is he?” _Huh._ Jack considers whether or not to call him out. “He’s awake. Hey, Teal’c, buddy.” He can always ignore it.

The eyes open.

Daniel shoots off in Ancient Egyptian. Teal’c has to remind him to slow down.

“Err…Sam?” Daniel deliberately doesn’t look at her squirm. “He’s a little… uncomfortable with you here.” She almost bolts up. “He’s glad you’re ok!” He calls after her.

“Wait, Captain.” She clearly doesn’t want to, but Jack’s captain stops obediently. “What’s wrong, Daniel?”

“Err, well, it’s complicated. She’s a woman.” That gets two grimaces. “He thinks she might be, like, a false-goddess.”

“A _what?_ ”

“Well, you did make a broken Stargate work, Sam. But then, you know…”

“I almost killed him?”

It’s Daniel’s turn to wince. “He’s not mad, it’s just…” _Would you finish a sentence?_

“Hey, wait. Carter _saved_ his life.”

Charlie stops loitering outside at that. “She did?”  _More so than normal?_

Jack smirks, pleased he’s finally lured his 2IC in. “Collapsed the mine.” He cocks his head towards Teal’c’s bandaged leg. “Or the Gate would’ve taken off a lot more than that.”

_She collapsed the mine?_ Charlie almost lets his reaction slip, but Jack’s not going to get him that easy. “Wow, that’s great. Nice job, Captain.”

_Run._ “Thank you, Gentlemen. I should really…”

_Fight or flight at a compliment, Captain?_ Jack lets her go. “Yeah, Siler’s out there.”

“So. Her reactions are getting better.” Charlie comments with no particular discretion.

Jack nods. Tell him about it.


	5. Two for Two

“Didn’t I tell you to get some rest?” _No, actually you told her ‘Siler’s out there’._ Jack reserves the right to be indignant anyway; it’s apparently the only thing his captain responds to.

Sam almost bangs her head against the lab bench. It’d probably do wonders for her headache. “We’ve only got a few labs left, Sir.” She turns to the doorway. Sergeant Siler studiously examines his flashlight.

 _“Rest_ , Captain, is a peculiar thing. It involves _not working_.”

“I’m alright, Sir.”

Jack logs this tone away as ‘I’ve spent the last four days getting chased and beaten by Jaffa and burnt by a broken DHD’. Good to know.

“She’s a little dizzy, Colonel.”

Sam gapes at the metaphorical jump over her. She doesn't _feel_ dizzy.

Jack doesn’t hesitate to save the nervous sergeant. “Thank you, sergeant. You’re done for the day. Excellence job earlier, by the way.”

 _Sir, this is my flight._ Jerk. Her CO walks out. “Sergeant, just a second.”

“Ma’am, I really should…”

“We’re done working. I just wanted to talk to you quickly.” He nods. “I regret I haven’t studied your file. I will, but I wanted to get your own thoughts about your future.”

Siler nods. Apparently they’re doing his initial feedback on the floor of a disused biochemistry lab. His flight commander seems to realize this and rolls him a chair. “I’m a maintenance guy, Ma’am.” He starts dutifully. “Got to into flight engineer from crew chief a several years back. I expect that’s where I’ll end up after this.”

 _A crew chief and a flight engineer? _What the heck is he doing down here? “Do you like your work here?”

Siler considers this seriously. It’d been boring as hell until a couple hours ago, which tends to make the people somewhat similar. “I’ve spent most of my time here getting up to speed on facility maintenance. It’s… different.” He couches diplomatically. “But the Stargate. I’d trade that for aircrew any day, Ma’am.”

“Have you been reading up on it?”

“Actually, they won’t tell us much.” He hides his grimace.

Sam nods to his disappointment. At least that’s one thing she can do. “I’d like to change that. I’d be a fool to waste you while I have you, Sergeant. How do you feel about facility design?”

The tech sergeant lets his eyebrows rise. “You mean defensive measures?”

“Maintenance, defense, user interface. Anything. You’re the crew chief.” He smiles, interested. “I have to tell you upfront that I can’t guarantee any of it actually happening, though.” Sam tells him straight, containing the sadness and newfound fear. They’re already at war and no one in DC seems to give a damn.

Siler nods. “I move out the week after we ship it to Yucca.”

“I’m still not convinced that’s what we’ll be doing next month, Sergeant.” Sam’s done her job for it, but she still refuses to imagine burying and blowing up the Gate at a desert nuclear waste site.

Siler’s CO fixes straight on him. _So this is her._ The woman who’d miraculously turned on the Stargate after fifteen years, and then spent another two turning on the SGC. _And is now the catalyst for a galactic struggle for the planet’s survival._ She’s taking it rather well. His CO relieves him pleasantly and stays to turn off the tested equipment.

 

“Better rested, Captain?”

Sam jolts at the voice. “Colonel.”

 _Yep, pissed her off alright._ “I believe I said you were done a solid seven minutes ago.”

“Colonel, Sir,” _with all due respect, screw you._ Sam starts more diplomatically. “You were correct.” Her CO just nods. It doesn’t buy her much time to figure out _what_ he was correct about. “…I had prioritized incorrectly with checking the labs.” She starts because it’s a classic mistake for her, but she realizes it’s true before she finishes. “I remedied that.”

 _Score one, Carter._ “I see that. Now sleep.”

What is she to him, a five-year-old? He’s already turning to leave. “Colonel!” _Shit._

“Yesss?”

 _Shit, shit. Hey, productive thoughts. _“Sir, I would appreciate it if you didn’t dismiss my NCOs out from under me.”

 _Score one-and-a-half._ “Captain, have you ever directly supervised an NCO?”

“No, Sir.” Not unless civilian GS-5s count.  _Don’t fidget._

“You may have noticed _he_ jumped over _you_.” Of course, her dizziness needed to be noted, but it didn’t need to be noted _to_ Jack.

She grimaces.

“You think he’s ever going to do that again?” He turns to leave before he smirks.

Sam’s brow furrows at his back. _You wanted me to talk to him?_ Damn. He’s good. “Colonel. Thank you.”

 _Score two._ Shit, he likes this rookie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to cut this fic here. The next one will be more team/Lou/Charlie and SJ centric.


End file.
